Jeff Bingaman: Great US Senator Leaves Void

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Senator Jeff Bingaman is retiring after thirty years of shunning the spotlight and just getting great policy work done. I think he was a combination of Jimmy Stewart ala Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. — one of the nation’s wisest legal minds….ever.

Holiday Pic from Anderson & Low

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Anderson & Low Just received this wonderful holiday pic from London-based, turbo-talented photographers Jonathan Anderson & Edwin Low, called just “Anderson & Low” by their friends. I love stopping in at the National Portrait Gallery in London — and discovering photos there that they took. Kate Middleton enjoys their work also.

Best Books Read by Atlantic Editors in 2012

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Editors at The Atlantic shared notes about the best books they read during the past year. These books did not need to be published in 2012 — but read during the last twelve months. My selection was Adam Goodheart’s 1861: The Civil War Awakening.

The Strategic Choice at the Ballot Box Today

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Three years ago, I wrote a piece for The American Interest grading President Barack Obama’s foreign policy performance after one year. I gave him a poor mark as I believed then that in assessing Obama, only Iran mattered and not much constructive had happened on that track. Stanford University realist and former George W.

GOP Presidents Worst Contributors to Federal Debt

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Phil McCarten/Reuters In terms of total increase in “federal debt to GDP” under U.S. presidents in the post-World War II era, Republican presidents during their terms have contributed far more to the debt load of the nation than Democrats. Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W.

Mitt Romney, George Marshall, and Israel-Palestine

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During a major foreign policy address earlier today at the Virginia Military Institute, GOP presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney paid tribute to one of the school’s most distinguished graduates, former Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State as well as Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall.

Hickenlooper Plus on the State of American Dreaming About Future

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In a short bit, I’ll be interviewing Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper in one of the Allstate-National Journal-Atlantic Heartland Monitor forums that Ron Brownstein has pulled together before the debates. The schedule is pasted below. My bit with Hickenlooper, the first brewpub master since Sam Adams to become governor of a state, starts at 10 a.m….